Abduction
Abduction is a short story revolving around Tayluu, a Toa of Psionics created by and who is ReddKuta's drawn character for the Character Swap Writing Contest. In the story, Tayluu is captured by Hourdain, a vengeful Marjosean. Story Part One: Run Tayluu ducked underneath an arrow, feeling it fly over her head. The trees stood higher than anything she'd ever seen on Daxia, but she had no time to admire their height or impressiveness. She had no time to pick the pretty-smelling and nicd-looking flowers she saw, which were only coloured dots against the dark green woodland background. Not that she was one for picking flowers. Voya Nui had been a challenge. She liked a challenge. Challenges made her feel alive, dangerous, POWERFUL. She had been running through the forest for hours, and her attackers were no closer to catching her. She was on fire! Than again, she wasn't any closer to evading them, was she. She flicked a knife from her satchel-a recent acquisition from a Steltian trader in a tavern-and flung it blindly behind her. She heard a grunt and the spattering of blood onto the forest floor. She smiled. She had struck her target, hopefully in the neck. She slid under a low branch, throwing another knife seconds later. The thunk of metal on wood was all she needed to know she'd missed. There was barely any light, so she couldn't see a thing. That wasn't helping one bit. She was SURE that her chasers could see in the dark. If not she would have got away by now. She sighed, flicked another knife up and... BANG! She was on the forest floor, a poppy bruise swelling up inside her kanohi. She felt the area of the bruise. A hairline crack ran down her forehead, ending just above her eye. "I'm going to need a new Faxon." She muttered. Within seconds, she was up and running once more, but her pursuers were gaining. Hitting her head on a low tree branch wasn't what she had had in mind in terms of an escape. How had she got herself into this situation? She remembered talking to the Vortixx in the same tavern she'd acquired her knives in and he'd made a few calls on his communicator, then this! She didn't know what she'd said but... That wasn't important. What was important was getting away from whoever was chasing her. Her eyes flitted around, looking for trickier ways through the jungle to fool her pursuers. This was proving to be difficult, as she could barely see anything at all and she had got on before by using her Faxon to imitate Rahi who could see in the dark. Her Faxon was broken now, so she'd lost a powerful asset in finding her way. It would be hard to do anything by means of escape now. But suddenly she couldn't do anything. Because she was falling. She hadn't lasted a minute without her Faxon. She had fallen in a trap, like some idiotic Muaka Bull. The darkness of the pit enveloped her, crawling around her like a swarm of spiders, sucking her in like a black hole. The darkness seemed to be alive, teeming with shadow. She could almost see it smiling an evil smile, as if it were some gross scientist experimenting on a helpless rahi. She smiled back at the darkness. And she let it swallow her. Part Two: Trap Tayluu woke again to the sound of a door being swung open. She sat up, dazed by the last remainders of a powerful blast of sleeping gas. Her hands were tied behind her back by a strange form of solid electrical current. Now how can that be done? she thought to herself. She surveyed her surroundings. She was in a prison cell, brand spanking new by the looks of it. It was made of a strange type of metal, probably a meld of several other types. Two guards stood outside a door, which was-unluckily for her-not mechanical. A tall red and silver armored figure walked into the room. "The infamous Toa Tayluu!" he said. "How delightful to meet you at last!" "What stops me from crushing your sanity right now with my elemental powers?" She snapped. "I am rather grateful not to have much sanity left to crush. Either way" he said slyly. "I am One Hundred Percent mentally shielded. It's a trait of my species, you know." "Your... your species?" "I am a Marjosean. We are somewhat mysterious beings, preferring to operate alone. We don't do favours. We don't help people unless we get helped back. Understand? Us Marjoseans also have control over three elements-In my case fire, plasma and lightning-and shapeshifting powers. If we touch it, we can change into it." He suddenly cracked a smile. "May I say that you are looking very fine today?" he said jokingly, gesturing towards Tayluu's swelling bruise. "Suddenly I really want to snap your neck." "I get that a lot. But where are my manners! My name is Hourdain." "Why am I here?" The smile dropped from his face instantly. "I am just like you, Tayluu. We are both bounty hunters. Mercenaries. We are both merciless to our targets. We both hate competition." At this, he unstrapped a double barrelled rifle from his back and caressed it lovingly. "You are very good competition. Always was, as a matter of fact. But I was game. You had your targets and I had mine. We never crossed paths on missions." "This is game to you? I can't use my powers on you, I'm weaponless in a prison cell while you've got a great big rifle and I'm handcuffed by some weird energy current! WHAT IS GOING ON!" "But then the Order gave you your last target." he continued on as if she had said nothing. There was a kind of savage fire in his eyes now. If looks could kill... she didn't want to think about it. "You killed one of my best friends, Tayluu. One of my Marjosean brothers. I can't let you get away with that. There's a monster under your bed, just waiting to be set free. And you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to unleash it. I'm going let it out, and watch as it tears you limb from limb. Every soul who's life you ended will be dancing for joy when they see what I do to you. You are scum, you are filth, you will be eradicated, you will BURN!" There was a pause. "And his name" said Hourdain "was Dretgas." Her eyes widened at the name. She remembered the kill all too well... Part Three: Flashback It had been like any other mission at the start. Helryx had called her up and asked her to report to the briefing room at headquarters. She had been given all details of her target, how best to kill him, his backstory, his location, so on and so forth. He had been hiding on Zakaz, a place she rarely visited and very much disliked. Dretgas had been staying in and inn called The Red Tryna alone. She had called in, saying she wanted to see him about business. The barman was skeptical, and said that "Dretgas wasn't no man of no business, no missy!" She had taken it rather coolly in her opinion: she'd shot him and all others in the bar dead. By her standards, a suitable reaction. Dretgas had come down to see what was going on, and so the fight began. He had ran upstairs, grabbed a pistol or two and started firing like a madman at Tayluu. She had dodged all but one, which had managed to strike her in the stomach. She had backed against the wall, bleeding profusely from her stomach, lashing out in fury with her shotgun, him with his pistol. The Skakdi were vicious things, so rather than stop the fight: they decided to watch it, make bets on it, and some incredibly stupid ones joined in! None made it out alive. She had ran out of ammunition a lot quicker than she would have liked, so she threw the rifle aside. She ran up to his flank, sweeping acrobatically under his legs, causing him to trip and fall.he dropped his own two pistols. He was shot with his own two bullets. But before he was killed, he did an amazing thing: he laughed! "I may be down for the count, out of the picture, about to meet my maker, but I know someone who isn't!" he had said. "My brother will be out for blood when he hears I'm gone. Watch your back, Toa Tayluu." he had grinned, a full on, ear to ear grin. "'Cause you may wake up with a knife in it." Part Four: Escape "I remember. I remember." "He was my best friend... since what happened to Vadix and Marctz, anyways." He was calming down now, but Tayluu was still on edge. He could make any move at any time. "I hired some bounty hunters to bring you to me, and here you are!" An evil gleam in his eyes appeared. "I am going to kill you. Nice and easy... for me. For you, lots-and I mean lots-of screaming. Sound good?" Tayluu cocked an eyebrow, as if to say "I seriously doubt that". "Aren't we going to fight?" she said. He scowled. "Don't give you killer-to-be that look. And of course we'll fight. Who do you think I am? Now," the devious smile had returned. "Let's see how well the Order's best female assassin can do against Hourdain! Guard!" A Steltian labourer trudged into the cell. "Release her, and lead to the are-" he was cut short by a foot to his face. The Toa of Psionics darted for the door, her bonds freed. She forced the door to open itself with her powers over mechanics and severed a guard's mind with her elemental abilities. Great to have those back she thought with a grin. "Stop her!" Hourdain had risen from the floor. "She's getting away!" A blaze of red light shot past her from the Marjosean's rifle. She ducked under an other laser, narrowly avoiding the searing energy. A troop of Xian guards, alerted by the commotion, came sprinting down the corridor to see what was going on. They weren't exactly a match for the Toa. "Now that's done." she muttered to herself. "Now, where's the ex-" In moments, Hourdain was on her, hands at her neck, strangling her. She broke away, ready to fight to the death. "No weapon, no powers." He said, an insane look on his twisted, evil face. "Just our fists." Tayluu moved in first, whipping her foot to his ugly face. He parried expertly, punching in return directly to her stomach. Tayluu doubled up, but quickly recovered herself in time to block a potentially bone shattering elbow uppercut. "Want to know what I think?" she said, mocking her enemy now. "All I heard when you said all that earlier? All I heard was a little young Matoran, who wants everything his own way. Just hate for the sake of hate! Y'know what? I kill because I'm told to: Helryx wants someone brought down, I do it. I have no other way in life. Things go like that. We all have dead friends and loved ones... well, maybe not me... but anyways, we can't get caught up in it. I look at you, and see a spoiled, vain, idiotic Matoran. So what are you going to do about it? Let it go... or die?" He didn't see her fist until he had been struck out cold. She looked over him, silently. She could kill him... But that would gain nothing. She left him there, lying. Walking away, she saw something strapped to his hip. A sort of plasma torch. It was too good an opportunity to miss. She left his fortress in ashes. Epilogue He heard the rain beat down. He and Dretgas had travelled to this universe together. He would return alone. The rain, hard as it was, stung his skin. His armour, broken in pieces, was insufficient in keeping it out. The Marjosean had walked to here from his burnt and charred fortress and now wanted nothing more than to return to his own universe. Luckily he had just the thing to do that. He pulled out the glass tube from his old satchel and looked at the contents. A shard of an Olmak. He pressed it to his chest and thought of his home. A flash of light, a loud bang, and the darkness was unbroken. Hourdain had gone. Trivia *Tayluu was created by **Artek also kindly created the banner for Abduction, in place of the previous one created by . *Tayluu's taunts towards Hourdain were inspired by 's thoughts on Hourdain's quote in Part 2. Characters *Tayluu (created by Artek206) *Hourdain *Dretgas (mentioned and in a flashback) *Unnamed pursuers *Unnamed Steltian Labourer Guard Alternative Images ABDUCTION revised.png|The original banner, made by ReddKuta using Microsoft Paint. Category:Stories Category:Stories Category:Stories